I’m a big fan of McClaren. Last year was great, this year their cars are horrible. I do like Vettel, he is a very talented driver, but It was really cool that Mark Weber finally got a pole AND won a race. I’m not sure Button doesn’t have the driver’s championship sewn up, if there is no other consistent winner, he will get it on aggregate points.. Sunday’s race was great, one of the best this year!

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I’m a big fan of McClaren. Last year was great, this year their cars are horrible. I do like Vettel, he is a very talented driver, but It was really cool that Mark Weber finally got a pole AND won a race. I’m not sure Button doesn’t have the driver’s championship sewn up, if there is no other consistent winner, he will get it on aggregate points.. Sunday’s race was great, one of the best this year!

I agree completely about Webber, that was long overdue! I thought it was over for him when he got the penalty. Also, I love Nurburgring. I do think Button will take WDC but I expect Red Bull to take the constructors. Barrichello is just not performing. I do think it’s interesting the way the power has shifted. With Adrian Newey leaving McClaren for Red Bull and Ross Brawn leaving Ferrari for Honda (Brawn), it’s funny to see them challenging each other for the championship in different teams with Ferrari and McClaren in serious trouble.

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Rubens is to whiny for me…it’s always somebody’s fault! His argument would hold more weight if he could perform! Yea, Newey pulled a fast one out for Braun! Do you think Max is really stepping down? How long do you think it will be before Bernie is kicked out?

Have you ever been to a race? I went to Montreal last year and it was GREAT, I am sooo pissed that Bernie got rid of it this year. I hope it will be back for 2010 or 2011. I want to go again!!

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I hope Max steps down! That was part of the deal with FOTA, so for the sake of F1, I hope he honors it. I honestly think everyone is tired of seeing Max around and I’m surprised he wasn’t ousted after his scandal awhile back. I’ve read news reports online that two men in the CVC group that has commercial rights for F1 are Jewish and are apparently angry at Bernie for his recent Hitler comments. The reports, which could just be rumors, suggested that they are looking to get rid of him with Flavio Briatore as a replacement. But, this could just be talk.

I went to the USGP at Indy in 2007. I had the 4 day camping pass to stay at the track, which was my honeymoon. The driver interviews were great. After they dropped that race, I started making plans to go to Montreal, which is another one of my favorites. I was hoping to go this year. I hope that if they get rid of Bernie, whoever steps in will go back to the historic tracks, including Silverstone, and keep other historic tracks like Monza and Spa, which apparently are having trouble. I also suspect that the USGP may have some negotiations soon since Tony George is no longer there and since USF1 is on the entry list (wishful thinking).

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I hope Max steps down! That was part of the deal with FOTA, so for the sake of F1, I hope he honors it. I honestly think everyone is tired of seeing Max around and I’m surprised he wasn’t ousted after his scandal awhile back. I’ve read news reports online that two men in the CVC group that has commercial rights for F1 are Jewish and are apparently angry at Bernie for his recent Hitler comments. The reports, which could just be rumors, suggested that they are looking to get rid of him with Flavio Briatore as a replacement. But, this could just be talk.

I went to the USGP at Indy in 2007. I had the 4 day camping pass to stay at the track, which was my honeymoon. The driver interviews were great. After they dropped that race, I started making plans to go to Montreal, which is another one of my favorites. I was hoping to go this year. I hope that if they get rid of Bernie, whoever steps in will go back to the historic tracks, including Silverstone, and keep other historic tracks like Monza and Spa, which apparently are having trouble. I also suspect that the USGP may have some negotiations soon since Tony George is no longer there and since USF1 is on the entry list (wishful thinking).

My oldest son was there in 2007 (isn’t that the year of the Michelin disaster?), he was NOT happy with the race. I believe that was Vettel’s first race! Awesome that you were there. Great honeymoon—don’t give my sons any ideas!

Flavio sticks his foot in HIS mouth on a regular basis too, I’m not sure he will be such a good replacement and he will exacerbate the problem of ‘driving while Ferrari’ that seems to be a problem now! Montreal is BEAUTIFUL and the people were sooo friendly! We stayed 4 days, everyone was in such a good mood! No arrests, the drunks were all in a good mood, no disparaging remarks about rival teams. We rented a room on Rue St Denis, which is right in the middle of the college area. People were on the street all hours of the night, it was very safe to wander around at 3am! Next time we are staying at least a week!

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Church; where sheep congregate to worship a zombie on a stick that turns into a cracker on Sundays…

I hope Max steps down! That was part of the deal with FOTA, so for the sake of F1, I hope he honors it. I honestly think everyone is tired of seeing Max around and I’m surprised he wasn’t ousted after his scandal awhile back. I’ve read news reports online that two men in the CVC group that has commercial rights for F1 are Jewish and are apparently angry at Bernie for his recent Hitler comments. The reports, which could just be rumors, suggested that they are looking to get rid of him with Flavio Briatore as a replacement. But, this could just be talk.

I went to the USGP at Indy in 2007. I had the 4 day camping pass to stay at the track, which was my honeymoon. The driver interviews were great. After they dropped that race, I started making plans to go to Montreal, which is another one of my favorites. I was hoping to go this year. I hope that if they get rid of Bernie, whoever steps in will go back to the historic tracks, including Silverstone, and keep other historic tracks like Monza and Spa, which apparently are having trouble. I also suspect that the USGP may have some negotiations soon since Tony George is no longer there and since USF1 is on the entry list (wishful thinking).

My oldest son was there in 2007 (isn’t that the year of the Michelin disaster?), he was NOT happy with the race. I believe that was Vettel’s first race! Awesome that you were there. Great honeymoon—don’t give my sons any ideas!

Flavio sticks his foot in HIS mouth on a regular basis too, I’m not sure he will be such a good replacement and he will exacerbate the problem of ‘driving while Ferrari’ that seems to be a problem now! Montreal is BEAUTIFUL and the people were sooo friendly! We stayed 4 days, everyone was in such a good mood! No arrests, the drunks were all in a good mood, no disparaging remarks about rival teams. We rented a room on Rue St Denis, which is right in the middle of the college area. People were on the street all hours of the night, it was very safe to wander around at 3am! Next time we are staying at least a week!

I think the Michelin disaster was either 2005 or 2006. I can’t remember for sure. I was going to go that year but I had to work, talk about lucking out! It was definitely amazing to be at Vettel’s first race. I am really disappointed with missing out on Montreal though. I love the fact that it is surrounded by water. It sounds like it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of happy drunks at Indy as well, most of which came up from Brazil to cheer on Massa. They were riding around the camping areas piled in the back of pickups with Brazilian flags. It was great. Each night, everyone was lighting off fireworks and during the day Papa John’s had people driving around selling pizzas. The only problem with that race was the heat. It was sooo unbearable, we often had to go into the museum for relief. It was especially bad since we were camping and not staying in a hotel. But, it was still an incredible experience. We also got autographs from the SpeedTV guys: Bob Varsha, Peter Windsor, and Steve Matchett. I unfortunately missed out on a chance to get David Hobb’s autograph.

I’m not sure how much better Flavio would be. I remember a couple years back when he said that it would be good if F1 had a couple of short sprint races like GP2 to make it more exciting. I remember thinking “boy am I glad he’s not in charge…”

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Montreal was muggy in the low 90s, but not too bad. Isle de Notre Dame is on the St Lawrence Seaway. You walk about a half mile across a bridge to the lush park. We had a breeze off the water. I’m from CA and I’ve never seen a waterway that big outside of an ocean! I think it was even bigger than our SF bay! Wow, you got autographs! We went to cheer on Lewis who made that stupid pre-rookie mistake of running into Kimi. I don’t know who was more pissed off—his fans or Kimi! I’m glad that Kubica won. Unfortunatly, he then felt the need to start complaining about EVERYTHING! leaving everyone to wish he’s just shut up and race. This year he has been quiet again…nothing much to talk about! Too bad about Sebastian Bordais, I have a feeling that at the begining of the next season, we’ll only have one Sebastian again! I wonder if Pique will still be around, he is not making as many stupid rookie mistakes (when we were at Montreal, we were walking down next to the course just in time to see Pique total his car and Flavio was NOT happy! The fans were for the most part Ferrari red for as far as we could see!

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I thought that was a bit odd of Kubica to criticize bmw so much when they were doing so well. They really came crashing down this year. I feel bad about Bordais too, especially since he had so much success in champcar and gave that up for F1. I hope he can get into Indy next year. It’s starting to seem like Toro Rosso may be a destructive team to drive for. They’ve gone through so many drivers and Bordais is not the first to get dropped mid season.

Piquet is an interesting driver. He’s obviously not as good as his dad but has the ego as if he’s the champion. Flavio has been so hard on him in the past, I’m surprised he even stayed. I think that they’ll probably keep him since he has improved. It makes more sense than to start over with another rookie as long as Piquet can keep it up.

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“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” - Seneca

I thought that was a bit odd of Kubica to criticize bmw so much when they were doing so well. They really came crashing down this year. I feel bad about Bordais too, especially since he had so much success in champcar and gave that up for F1. I hope he can get into Indy next year. It’s starting to seem like Toro Rosso may be a destructive team to drive for. They’ve gone through so many drivers and Bordais is not the first to get dropped mid season.

Piquet is an interesting driver. He’s obviously not as good as his dad but has the ego as if he’s the champion. Flavio has been so hard on him in the past, I’m surprised he even stayed. I think that they’ll probably keep him since he has improved. It makes more sense than to start over with another rookie as long as Piquet can keep it up.

Yes, and he needs to protect Alonzo’s fragile ego and keep HIM happy, wouldn’t want another rookie to challenge him…would we? Alonzo is a great driver, it’s an open secret that he wants to go to Ferarri—-at the expense of who? Massa won’t do a Reubens and move aside to let him win, neither would Kimi although I suspect it would be Kimi that would leave. Too bad about HIS race on Sun. Ferrari hasn’t looked that good all year! What a difference 3 weeks make. On the other hand, if Alonzo left, Renault would be freer in their hiring of the next driver. Yes, Toro Rosso, does seem to go through the drivers! Buemi hasn’t quite lived up to expectations, hope he gets better!

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I thought that was a bit odd of Kubica to criticize bmw so much when they were doing so well. They really came crashing down this year. I feel bad about Bordais too, especially since he had so much success in champcar and gave that up for F1. I hope he can get into Indy next year. It’s starting to seem like Toro Rosso may be a destructive team to drive for. They’ve gone through so many drivers and Bordais is not the first to get dropped mid season.

Piquet is an interesting driver. He’s obviously not as good as his dad but has the ego as if he’s the champion. Flavio has been so hard on him in the past, I’m surprised he even stayed. I think that they’ll probably keep him since he has improved. It makes more sense than to start over with another rookie as long as Piquet can keep it up.

Yes, and he needs to protect Alonzo’s fragile ego and keep HIM happy, wouldn’t want another rookie to challenge him…would we? Alonzo is a great driver, it’s an open secret that he wants to go to Ferarri—-at the expense of who? Massa won’t do a Reubens and move aside to let him win, neither would Kimi although I suspect it would be Kimi that would leave. Too bad about HIS race on Sun. Ferrari hasn’t looked that good all year! What a difference 3 weeks make. On the other hand, if Alonzo left, Renault would be freer in their hiring of the next driver. Yes, Toro Rosso, does seem to go through the drivers! Buemi hasn’t quite lived up to expectations, hope he gets better!

I really wouldn’t be surprised if Kimi is gone next year. He doesn’t like the politics and he’s been doing a lot of rallying lately. Massa is pretty loyal to the team, but I think his ego was boosted after last season. I think you’re right about him not moving over for Alonso. Then again, Ferrari is a different team with Todt being gone. Kimi and Massa are pretty equal.

If Alonso leaves Renault, I wonder who would replace him. Maybe Bordais? I can’t imagine Renault taking another inexperienced driver, making Piquet the #1 driver. Scary. I hope Beumi gets to stay on awhile longer. It’s hard to judge where he is since the Toro Rosso isn’t as good as last year. I remember reading a statement from them saying they’ve fallen behind Red Bull in development. It probably doesn’t help that Vettel switched teams.

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I really wouldn’t be surprised if Kimi is gone next year. He doesn’t like the politics and he’s been doing a lot of rallying lately. Massa is pretty loyal to the team, but I think his ego was boosted after last season. I think you’re right about him not moving over for Alonso. Then again, Ferrari is a different team with Todt being gone. Kimi and Massa are pretty equal.

If Alonso leaves Renault, I wonder who would replace him. Maybe Bordais? I can’t imagine Renault taking another inexperienced driver, making Piquet the #1 driver. Scary. I hope Beumi gets to stay on awhile longer. It’s hard to judge where he is since the Toro Rosso isn’t as good as last year. I remember reading a statement from them saying they’ve fallen behind Red Bull in development. It probably doesn’t help that Vettel switched teams.

What did you think of the Australian GP? I think they need to do something about the stewards. It was stupid for Lewis to lie, but I can understand his paranoia, based on their past performances. I think there should be regular stewards that have to pass an exam. It is insane for them to make rulings after a race or the day after the race, and their rulings are inconsistent to the point of being schizoid! I was happy that they got on it and sent Webber onto his drive thru right away!

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I really wouldn’t be surprised if Kimi is gone next year. He doesn’t like the politics and he’s been doing a lot of rallying lately. Massa is pretty loyal to the team, but I think his ego was boosted after last season. I think you’re right about him not moving over for Alonso. Then again, Ferrari is a different team with Todt being gone. Kimi and Massa are pretty equal.

If Alonso leaves Renault, I wonder who would replace him. Maybe Bordais? I can’t imagine Renault taking another inexperienced driver, making Piquet the #1 driver. Scary. I hope Beumi gets to stay on awhile longer. It’s hard to judge where he is since the Toro Rosso isn’t as good as last year. I remember reading a statement from them saying they’ve fallen behind Red Bull in development. It probably doesn’t help that Vettel switched teams.

What did you think of the Australian GP? I think they need to do something about the stewards. It was stupid for Lewis to lie, but I can understand his paranoia, based on their past performances. I think there should be regular stewards that have to pass an exam. It is insane for them to make rulings after a race or the day after the race, and their rulings are inconsistent to the point of being schizoid! I was happy that they got on it and sent Webber onto his drive thru right away!

I definitely think something must be done about the stewards. I really don’t like how so many penalties are given out after the race is already finished and they give out too many for things that are just racing incidents. I don’t remember now what the protest was for, but after Brazil in 2007 Mclaren protested against something that would have changed the order and made Hamilton WDC instead of Kimi. Had they ruled in favor, the title would have been taken from Kimi and we had to wait at least a month for the ruling. I think all of those politics severely damage the sport. I understand that the decision regarding Hamilton was different since they didn’t have all the facts. I can see why Mclaren would be concerned given their history, but if they would’ve told the truth there would have been no penalty. They would’ve either kept their position or given the position to Trulli. I also thought that it was wrong how Hamilton came out against the team saying he was mislead. He wasn’t mislead. He was told by the team to mislead the stewards. Then he wined about how he’s not having any fun and thought about quitting. I think he talks too much and probably got into a winning car and won the title prematurely, which is really too bad because I cheered him on in GP2 and was a fan at the beginning of his F1 career. I liked him less and less every time I heard him talk.

Speaking of the Australia incident, what happened to Toyota this year? They had very strong races at the start of the season.

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“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” - Seneca

I used to be a huge F1 fan. Jackie Stewart was my hero when I was a teenager. I even remember when the tires were skinny and the drivers were fat. Unfortunately, with the advent of traction control in the 1990s, the drivers have become far less important than the cars. This year is a perfect illustration of that, as formerly dominant teams cannot compete, and former also-rans prevail. The drivers didn’t suddenly becomes bums or heroes over the winter, some designers found loopholes in the rules and exploited them.

Frankly F1 has been boring for the last 15 years or so. There is very little racing any more. Most passing takes place in the pits. This contrasts greatly with Word Superbike and MotoGP, where the riders bang elbows in corners and pass each other multiple times each lap. Great stuff, and much more thrilling than watching glorified parades.

Now I’m going to duck and run while the barbs fly my way.

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You cannot have a rational conversation with someone who holds irrational beliefs.

I used to be a huge F1 fan. Jackie Stewart was my hero when I was a teenager. I even remember when the tires were skinny and the drivers were fat. Unfortunately, with the advent of traction control in the 1990s, the drivers have become far less important than the cars. This year is a perfect illustration of that, as formerly dominant teams cannot compete, and former also-rans prevail. The drivers didn’t suddenly becomes bums or heroes over the winter, some designers found loopholes in the rules and exploited them.

Frankly F1 has been boring for the last 15 years or so. There is very little racing any more. Most passing takes place in the pits. This contrasts greatly with Word Superbike and MotoGP, where the riders bang elbows in corners and pass each other multiple times each lap. Great stuff, and much more thrilling than watching glorified parades.

Now I’m going to duck and run while the barbs fly my way.

I don’t mind watching MotoGP whenever I can catch it, but I don’t follow it like I follow F1. Really, I’ll watch anything on a road course. Unfortunately, the best years of F1 were before my time. I do enjoy tracking down F1 and Indy videos on YouTube from the 60s. My dad has told me stories about when he was little and going to the Indy 500 with my grandpa around that time. Somewhere there’s supposed to be some old 8mm videos that my grandpa took of the races. I love watching the old videos of guys like Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart, and I especially like seeing races at the real Nurburgring. I’ll admit that it’s not as good as it used to be, especially since traction control and the new aerodynamics, but I still really enjoy watching the races.

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“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” - Seneca

You can still find some old F1 races on the internet. My son downloads them onto a portable hard drive. I’ve just been watching F1 for a few years, but I remember my sons yammering on and on about it from the time they could talk. for my son’s 16th birthday I purchased a large poster of Nigel Mansel and Aryton Senna which was a limited edition signed by Mansel—too bed it wasn’t signed by Senna as well! It may not be as exciting as it used to be, but it IS much safer, even when I wasn’t following it, I remember the deaths of Clark and Senna clearly. It’s too bad that they made changes to allow for more passing and the teams found a way to work around it to create more parades instead of races.

Speaking of parades, what were they thinking when they designed Valencia?? There is not a lot they can do to make it a true racing course. There are still the isolated good races as well as the occasional great race.

I like Lewis, and I was disappointed in his behavior in the Australian debaucle, but he is only 23, and I have seen such behavior in other 23 year olds who have not yet matured. Vettel is very mature, but some of the drivers well into their 30s still whine and act like teenagers. I’m hoping his championship doesn’t go to his head and he continues to mature.

Do you follow the podcast ‘sidepodcast.com’? It is out of England and is a great podcast of the F1 soap opera that we call racing!

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Church; where sheep congregate to worship a zombie on a stick that turns into a cracker on Sundays…

You can still find some old F1 races on the internet. My son downloads them onto a portable hard drive. I’ve just been watching F1 for a few years, but I remember my sons yammering on and on about it from the time they could talk. for my son’s 16th birthday I purchased a large poster of Nigel Mansel and Aryton Senna which was a limited edition signed by Mansel—too bed it wasn’t signed by Senna as well! It may not be as exciting as it used to be, but it IS much safer, even when I wasn’t following it, I remember the deaths of Clark and Senna clearly. It’s too bad that they made changes to allow for more passing and the teams found a way to work around it to create more parades instead of races.

Speaking of parades, what were they thinking when they designed Valencia?? There is not a lot they can do to make it a true racing course. There are still the isolated good races as well as the occasional great race.

I like Lewis, and I was disappointed in his behavior in the Australian debaucle, but he is only 23, and I have seen such behavior in other 23 year olds who have not yet matured. Vettel is very mature, but some of the drivers well into their 30s still whine and act like teenagers. I’m hoping his championship doesn’t go to his head and he continues to mature.

Do you follow the podcast ‘sidepodcast.com’? It is out of England and is a great podcast of the F1 soap opera that we call racing!

Valencia was terrible! I couldn’t believe it. When I heard they were going there I got excited because I thought there was a road course somewhere in that area. There still may be because I had a track in mind where I thought it was going to be. I had no idea it was going to be a street circuit. I don’t see success having a huge effect on Vettel. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. Hamilton is well intentioned too, but I think part of the problem was the fact that he was coached by Ron Dennis since he was young. He was a pro when he was little. He’s keeping a low profile though and I expect things will cool down and be forgotten. And oddly enough, I never thought to look for a Formula 1 podcast. It’s something I’ll look into sometime. Right now I have my hands full playing catch up with PoI, which I only recently discovered.

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“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” - Seneca